In Flanders Fields
As we approach the 91st anniversary of the end of World War I, the poem In Flanders Fields remains an evocative symbol of remembrance world wide. The poem was written by Canadian doctor and soldier John McCrae.
A surgeon in the dressing stations in the Ypres salient in 1915, John McCrae had spent weeks tending the injured and dying when a friend and former student, Lt. Alexis Helmer of Ottawa, was blown up by a shell burst during the Second Battle of Ypres. With no chaplain available, McCrae performed a makeshift funeral service for Helmer under cover of darkness. Sitting on the back of an ambulance on a break the next day, McCrae looked over the scene in front of him and wrote these 15 lines that still strike a chord.
Alexis Helmer was just one of more than 60,000 Canadians who died during World War I. Another 170,000 were wounded.
Photo: Flanders Poppies
Tom Brakefield / Getty Images
Comments
A beautifully crafted poem, although I can’t agree entirely with the sentiment. Surely the dead, could they speak, and assuming that death had given them new insights, would urge the cessation of the fighting.